


SØLSTACE

by thomasinx



Category: AriAster, Hereditary, Horror - Fandom, Midsommar - Fandom, film - Fandom
Genre: Codependency, F/F, F/M, Grief, Horror, M/M, Multi, Thriller, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-03-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:21:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22090216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thomasinx/pseuds/thomasinx
Summary: Dani Ardor has been lost and found.After fatefully joining the Hårga commune in Sweden with Pelle, Dani finds that she is most certainly not the same woman she used to be. Torn between her mixed feelings for Pelle and her unabashed guilt for Christian's death, she must return to America during the winter solstice with the May Queens one last time to discover the whereabouts of an ancient cult that the Elders believe have finally found the host for one of the eight Kings of Hell, Paimon.When she arrives in the lush greenery of Utah, however, the May Queens investigate the fateful demise of the cursed Graham family. And when she meets Paimon himself, Dani must quickly piece together what happened to Peter Graham to bring him back to Sweden. She does not expect to discover that Paimon is, in fact, Peter Graham himself: a broken young man who has also experienced traumatized horrors at the behest of the cult that controlled him.As she and Peter grow closer together and begin to discover the truth of fate's purpose in putting them through these horrors, Dani must make an ultimate decision between fighting for the only family she has left or fighting for control of a life that might join another...
Relationships: Bridget/PeterGraham, DaniArdor/Pelle, DaniArdor/PeterGraham, Joan/Paimon
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	1. Preface: Pelle

Winter had fallen against Sweden like a rock chafing against ice. Everything was frozen over into a hinge of blues and indigos purpling together every day and night, and Dani couldn't help but notice that it reflected the life she had had thus far.

After the Fire Temple had become nothing but ashes blown away into the distance, she had not been able to stop the insane smile that had eerily crossed her face in those cathartic moments of madness. She had believed that she had now been part of a family.

That all of the trauma and pain and suffering and codependency had gone behind her in a grand gesture of sacrifice. That Pelle had brought her to the Hårga commune as an invitation to start anew. To leave Christian and all of the dark past she had left behind in America that summer.

Dani now realized, however, that she had been terribly wrong.

"Dani? Are you awake?"

Dani glanced over her shoulder at Pelle's position on the bed and sighed in relief to find that he was wide awake. She padded barefoot back to his side and silently communicated to him that she could not sleep.

"Ah. I see." Pelle wrapped her up in his arms, the fresh scent of him enveloping her in a cocoon of warmth and sunlight. "Do you still have those nightmares often?"

Dani paused, debating whether or not to tell him the truth. The nightmares had plagued her ever since that fateful winter night.

The phone call from the police notifying her of the atrocious act her sister had committed in a swiftly calculated move of gaslighting and manipulation.

The murder of their parents.

And the suicide of Terri herself.

It had been horrifying to think that after everything they had gone through together, Terri Ardor had still been willing to tear their family apart for reasons she had known Dani would never even begin to fully fathom.

And it never helped to remember that Christian had been there to hold her. Even if he had been a terrible boyfriend to her, he had still held her trembling and screaming body of grief in the cold hours of that winter night.

Yet she had still chosen him as the final sacrifice for the midsummer festival.

So Dani decided to settle for a mixed truth.

"Every now and then."

Pelle sighed at this, his hands rubbing up and down her back as he silently took it in. "I could help you with that, you know... but only if you are ready."

Dani turned around to look at him. She could detect a certain hunger accentuating his words at this, and she had been aware of the very feeling he felt that had been burning through her breasts since the night of the end of the festival.

They had almost done it in the hollows of a cavern Pelle had gone to with Ingemar when they were children. They'd been heavily intoxicated with hallucinogens and they had been kissing for a while. But it had suddenly turned into a hunger that Dani had never quite known she'd had within her: and for the both of them.

Before Pelle could even begin, however, she had told him to wait until they were further acquainted and until the time was right for them to be in the moment and feel everything when they were sober.

He, of course, had understood but had continued to kiss her softly underneath the moonlight of the Swedish trees until they fell asleep in each other's arms. Siv had found them there early in the morning, bodies carefully intertwined together against the brush strokes of soft grass that padded near the cavern's opening.

But was she truly willing to give this man her virginity? The man that had undoubtedly planned for the demise of Christian? Of Mark and Josh? Possibly even herself?

 _Yes_ , she realized as she made her decision. _I make my own decisions now_...

"Oh, I am. The real question here is if _you_ are."

Pelle suddenly snapped his eyes to hers, and the shades of light blue that swam in the center of his irises gave her chills as he sat up straighter in the bed.

"Only if you're absolutely sure, Dani. You do know that I would never want you to if you weren't."

Dani finally took off her robe in one swift movement, revealing the naked body that had been waiting underneath for him the entire evening and possibly her entire life. For she knew him in every way he possibly could. Except for the body, mind, and soul that she still had, no matter how fractured or tainted.

"Without a doubt, Pelle. I am."

Suddenly his lips found hers in the faint light of the moon that fell through the window, and their arms wrapped around each other as their tongues spoke languages of sex and sin. She urged him against her and laid her body down.

Pelle began to undress as he came over Dani's body, her legs already spreading and wrapping themselves around his waist. Feeling the need for him to be inside of her more than she had ever yearned for Christian before, she looked up into his face.

"Fuck me, Pelle," she breathed, her light green eyes slightly narrowing at him.

He chuckled against her, his breath tickling her breasts as he teased the tip of his head and his cock against her throbbing entrance. "I most certainly will, _min kärlek_."

At this, she felt the smooth tip of him suddenly slip in between her. And he only continued to slowly slide deeply inside of her as she faintly trembled in his arms.

Her hands grasped his shoulders tightly as she carefully breathed through the faint pain of him and adjusted to his impressive length.

The May King and May Queen of the Hårga commune could only stare in silence at each other as they slowly began to make love for the first time, faintly breathing hard against each other in the cool hours of midnight.

At one point, Dani arched a leg over his shoulder and urged him to go faster. Pelle could only oblige her, and the bed began to rumble as she dug her fingers deeper into his skin. Their bodies began to glisten with sweat, and his strokes felt luxurious as he went deeper and harder within her.

"Yes Pelle," she breathed at his faster thrusts. "Right there..."

"Fuck..." Pelle panted as he grabbed her legs further around his waist, his tongue licking his bottom lip as he continued to make love to her. "I love you so much, Dani."

Dani suddenly found an inner strength inside her that she had not quite ever known before when he spoke those words. In the span of several moments, she suddenly found herself on top of him, his cock still buried into the hilt as she rode him hard, her body leaning backward and her back arching for better access.

" _Yes_!" she moaned as he continued to pound himself deeply inside of her, quickly moving in sync with the urgent movement of her hips. He grasped her thighs and squeezed them tightly. "Oh _, yes_!" They continued to make love like that for a while until Pelle grunted and stood up with her on the floor, pushing her body against the wall.

His muscles were bulging with strength as he thrust in and out of her, his eyes never leaving hers as she moaned louder, his own moans growing with the feeling of the arriving climax.

"I'm almost there..." Pelle said when he laid her back on the bed, his cock only erratically pumping in and out of her to the point where they both struggled to breathe.

She only urged him to thrust even faster. And that's when she felt herself come to.

" _Knulla_!" Pelle roared as he also came inside of her, his length pushing in hilt deep at the last moment.

He then dropped against her naked body, and she kissed him slowly but surely as they both became aware of the life they had just created together before they had to leave each other. They silently held each other as they calmed down, kissing each other passionately and whispering sweet nothings to each other in the dead of night.

Right before sleep embraced her into its dark grasp, Dani told Pelle what she had been aching to tell him for months.

The only wholehearted truth she had uttered to him the entire evening.

"I love you too, Pelle."

•

In the dense hours of early dawn, Pelle asked her what she would name their firstborn child if it were a female.

Dani hesitated before answering him truthfully. "Terri."

She couldn't help but hear an echo of another name haunting her in her sleep, however.

 _Connie_.


	2. Part One: Paimon

" _You_... are _**Paimon**_. One of the eight kings of Hell.

We reject the Trinity and pray devoutly to you, Great Paimon.

Give us your knowledge of all secret things.Bring us honor, wealth, and good familiars.

Bind all men to our will as we have bound ourselves for and now and forever to yours."

\- from Ari Aster’s _Hereditary_ (2018)


	3. 1. Dani

"Dani! Wake up! We are here!"

Dani suddenly snapped her eyes open, the harsh sunlight hitting her right in the eyes as she begrudgingly woke up as Ulla had told her to. "Already?" She glanced around, seeing that the plane was empty of all of the other passengers. "Where are the others?"

Ulla smiled brightly at her, offering her a hand as Dani took it and stood up, her carry-on bag already in Ulla's hands. "They are waiting for us inside the airport. I wanted to let you sleep for a little bit longer. You seemed so exhausted..."

Dani returned her smile, taking the proffered bag that Ulla had kindly grabbed from above them with her own as she followed Ulla out of the plane and into the airport. "Why is it that you always know exactly what to do in any given moment, Ulla?"

Ulla merely continued to smile at her, walking by her side as they left their terminal.A dark-skinned woman greeted them and welcomed them to Utah before they headed into the general direction of the baggage drop.

"I just do, Dani," she responded airily as they approached the central station of the airport to find Hanna. "You know that I tend to be really good when it comes to intuition."

Dani could only agree silently with this.Even when Ulla had eventually told her of all of the steps she had taken in grooming Christian for Maja's ritual, Dani had had to push aside her feelings of lucid disgust and admired her ability to make the right decisions.

At the end of the day, none of the May Queens were in control of the Hårga. And that was how fate decreed it, according to the Elders of Hårga themselves. Dani, however, did not agree.

"How long has it been since we landed?" She should already have been awake and with the others, going over every single detail that the Council had given them on the missionary before they had departed.

"I believe that it has only been a few minutes," said Ulla. "It hasn't been that long since we've landed."

Dani suddenly saw Hanna and the others exiting the airport in the distance, and she truly began to feel at ease when the woman's blue eyes met hers. Ever since she'd led the new ruling May Queen to bless the Hårga's crops, Hanna had been nothing but genuine when the festivities had finally ceased its end.

In fact, she had been the one who had helped Dani in beginning to learn many of the Hårga's pagan rituals that they did not know would be used to prevent them from being further groomed or brainwashed to the point of madness.

"I know that I had not told you about any of it beforehand, but if I had done so, however, my head would surely have been cut off before I had even tried," she'd explained to Dani.She'd at first felt numb from the chaos of the entire year's worth of trauma, and she had unknowingly already been susceptible to certain aspects of the brainwashing the Hårgan Elders committed.

Hanna had taught her the incantations and steps that she would need to follow every day until the winter solstice came when they would finally be free of the Hårga's influence.

"Are there any other sympathizers with us?" Dani had asked her on another day of practice when Hanna had taken her to the side to help her with her the accuracy of her memories.

"Yes, there are," she'd answered, pausing their lesson to look her in the eyes, a subtle way of reminding Dani that everything was real."You are very fortunate to have many of us May Queens on our side. Maja, Pelle, and his sister are all integral parts of our secret cause. Ulla, however... I am afraid that she is definitely beyond our hope."

She had been relieved to discover the rebels' small existence included Pelle, but she had already known that ever since the aftermath of the Fire Temple's destruction. He'd pulled her aside and told her that he would not let her succumb to what many others in the Hårga commune had, sadly, already fully given into.

So Dani had merely continued her daily life as it had been beforehand, just as if she were still docile to the Hårga's influence.Especially under the ever-watchful eyes of the Elders, she had had no other choice but to keep up her front of insanity. 

The group had only reconvened with Hanna in any sparing moment of rare isolation in the Hårga, or they had simply used their secret language of hand signs that Pelle and his sister had created. They would use it to either signal an emergency, or that one of the rebels needed to seek out one or all of the others.

A Scandinavian, Hanna had come to a special gathering when she was a young girl and had lost her parents before very nearly giving in to the Hårga.A middle-aged woman that had gone missing by the sole name of Vil had helped Hanna recuperate and given her the knowledge she had needed to survive. Exactly the same way that she had done so with Dani.

"Without her aid and presence, I would only be nothing," was all she'd said of her thus far.

Dani had not further asked her about what had happened to Vil.

"Hey! There you are!" said Hanna as Dani and Ulla finally approached her.She looked a bit harried at the moment but alive. A few brown strands of her hazelnut hair escaped down her face from its braid, falling down in short cascades around her eyes. "The others have already found their rides to go into town. We are to meet all of them down at the Graham estate. I assume that everything is well?"

"Yes it is indeed, Hanna," Ulla trilled in response to this. "Dani was still sound asleep when you all left, but I made sure to stay behind in case anyone on the plane was tainted."

Tainted indeed - people of the normal world who seemed to sense the spiritual influence of those mortals like several of many global cults like the Hårgan and Paimon ones. People who they were all instructed from a young age to stay away from, and to keep their whereabouts and wits about them were they to ever come by.

"When will we be leaving?" Dani asked aloud, remembering all of this with a subtle grimness.

"Well, if you are all ready to, then right now will do just fine."

The three women turned around to behold an elderly woman in a pink shawl.Her puffy auburn hair had been placed into a tight bun at the top of her head, and two curls fell down gracefully on either side of her face. She wore a strange ring that glinted with what Dani knew to be a topaz stone encased in pewter gold on her index finger.

"Oh, you must be Joan then?" Hanna inquired to the strange woman that had spoken to them.

"Yes, that would be me!" Joan chuckled as she shook Ulla's outstretched hand firmly and approached the other two women. "Did you all make it alright on your flight here to the States?"

"We did, actually," said Dani cheerfully, her smile brightening. She had suddenly been detecting a subtle telepathic nudge from Hanna to say something and keep the front going. _Appear to be normal. Do not give her your true nature_.

"It's nice to make your acquaintance, Ms. Joan," Hanna finished after also shaking the woman's hand.

Joan laughed at this, swiftly waving a hand away as if to shoo all of the pleasantries aside. "Oh, Joan will do just fine. And you are?"

"Dani." She held her hand out to the woman who grasped it, a firm grip taking hold of hers momentarily before letting it fall apart."And these two here are Ulla and Hanna."

"How marvelous it is to finally make all of your acquaintances!" Joan exclaimed as she escorted them to the nearest entrance to the airport.Hanna pointed to where their bags laid nearby in silent answer, having already picked them up from the baggage claim while Ulla had wakened Dani.

They gathered up all of their luggage quickly before catching up with Hanna and Joan ahead of them. "Any delegate of the occult Hårga will suffice!" said Ulla ruefully when they strode beside the other two women.

Dani had to physically restrain herself from rolling her eyes at this, so she merely nodded enthusiastically and smiled brighter.

"And to all of those who truly know of King Paimon's existence," Joan finished swiftly. She began to lead the trio of women through the middle of the airport's central station and towards the northern wig that must have served as the drop-off and pick up area. "It is not only exhilarating in itself to have him forevermore at our leisure," Joan continued as she led them through the crowds.

The soft hubbub of passengers checking in, stopping by gift shops or grabbing a quick bite to eat. They were mundane to Dani, and she envied their normalcy of being able to naturally be able to live humanely.

"... and it is quite an honorable thing as well," Joan was finishing as Dani's attention snapped back to them. "I am sure that all of you begin to find that out for yourselves over the duration of your stay."

 _Paimon_. Dani repressed a shudder at the mere thought of him alone. The Eighth King of Hell's large American cult following that had apparently been errant around these parts for generations.

According to the Hårga's quick research on the history of the cult of Paimon, they had discovered that the cult was led by a woman by the name of Ellen Taper Leigh, who had been the cult's previous matriarch.She had been trying to groom her own son and husband to become fully possessed by Paimon through many years of failed attempts.

Her stubborn and traumatized daughter, Annie Leigh, was not an ideal host, due to Paimon requiring a healthy male body. Her brother, Charles Leigh, and their father had not gone gently, according to the oral records that a Hårgan source had gathered in person from the long speech that Annie Leigh Graham had given during a grief support group.

It had been a couple of weeks after Ellen had passed away, and Dani and Hanna had been quite unnerved listening to the tape recording. The woman had spoken with such confusion and guilt and pain and numbness that Dani had fought to sit through it and not break the tape by smashing it into the ground with her foot.

According to Annie, her brother had accused their mother of putting people inside of him and had committed suicide at an early age. Not knowing the truth of Charles' claims, the general public had swiftly dismissed it as a result of his schizophrenia. And despite the mundane understanding that Dani had always felt when it had ever come to the general public's opinion on such things, she was utterly disgusted at their false pretenses of such blissful ignorance. People like Dani and Annie didn't seem to ever truly be understood nor accepted.

Despite the failure of her family's grooming, however, Ellen had then proceeded to concoct a plan that would begin to groom her grandson, Peter Graham, for Paimon's soul.And she had lain the intricate trap right before silently passing on to her death bed. It had only landed her the cost of the end of the Leigh line. The violent deaths of her daughter, granddaughter, and son-in-law were the costs of the cult's ritual, and the King of Hell they so worshipped and desired was invading the presumably vacant soul of Peter Graham.

It was all incredibly fucked up in Dani's eyes, to say the least.And not at all honorable in the slightest.

“Indeed," Hanna agreed as they stepped through the airport's entrance. The automatic doors slid open and closed behind them, and they all quickly strolled behind Joan, careful of the icy road awaiting them outside. "We cannot wait to reconvene."

It was a cool winter morning in the depths of Utah. Many roads, vehicles, buildings, and windows were completely covered in chalks of frost and ice roughly forming against everything. Icicles dangled delicately beside the fat pillars that surrounded the entirety of the airport's main entrance and exit.

Joan beamed at them as she led them to a tan minivan parked right beside the entrance.The car suddenly chirped to life as she unlocked it, the trunk opening automatically on its own accord."I am absolutely thrilled to hear that, I really am," she threw over her shoulder as she opened the door to the driver's seat."Now, would any of you like any help with your luggage? I may be old, but I sure am hefty with lifting and carrying!"

"No, no! I believe that that is quite alright with us," Ulla tutted as she began to place her bags in the opening of the trunk. "We can handle it ourselves!"

"Alright, then. Well, at least be careful. These roads are very slippery around here during this time of the year, and I'm afraid that it will not change anytime soon."

Ulla nodded, and Hanna and Dani followed suit, their bags already being placed side by side as Ulla hopped in the passenger seat. Dani followed Hanna to the back of the car as they dropped their bags into Joan's trunk, quickly organizing them neatly. She decided to telepathically communicate with her while she had the chance.

_Is everything alright?_

Hanna looked at Dani at this and honed her focus on looking as neutral and genuine as possible.

_No. There is something I need to tell you._

Dani raised her eyebrows at this and softly whispered, "When?"

Hanna only went into the backseat and Dani followed close behind as she heard her response echoing in her head.

_Midnight._

"My, you have such a _lovely_ car," Hanna said to Joan, buckling her seatbelt and surveying the interior with an appreciative eye.

As she started up the engine, Joan chuckled at this. "Why, thank you! I bought it entirely for myself."

 _With demonic money I'm sure you did_ , Dani thought to herself.

"Is it true what the Hårga say about Paimon and cars?" That they always tend to - "

"Bump heads? Why, yes it is indeed, Ulla."

Dani raised her eyebrows at this. "They do? Why?"

As Joan began to look in the rearview mirror to check for any coming cars, her icy cold eyes quickly glanced at Dani in the reflection. She was glad that she had her parka on, for chills began to raise up her skin at the woman's expression.Right before she backed out of the parking spot and began to drive them towards their destination, Joan's quiet answer was laced with violence and dread.

"Because it's happened before. And it could always happen again."


	4. 2. Peter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for all of your support on this fanfic thus far! I’ve recently been struggling with lots of stuff - depression, anxiety, finances, writer’s block, and a bunch of other obstacles that are, unfortunately, thrown in the way of life!
> 
> I will continue to update this whenever I can as soon as possible! I know you all really want this to be updated more quickly, but it’ll have to be sporadically released every now and then due to my IRL stuff / working on another project that is hopefully to be my debut fantasy novel! 
> 
> Thank you for everything!  
> Hope you enjoy this new chapter!

One of the few memories left intact that he could remember clearly before darkness claimed him was that of a girl. Although he’d not been able to recall certain things in his past life, he somehow knew that he’d never fully associated with her properly before. The broken boy of broken promises suddenly found himself within the confines of a distant memory. 

It felt jagged, jarring despite its brutal clarity burning brightly within the dark webs the king of darkness weaved within him, causing time to itself become an illusion. It served a double purpose in comforting and containing him that he currently seemed to have no jurisdiction over.

In what was barely remaining intact in the sanity of his soul, a distant part of him was confused as to why he was allowed this momentary reprieve from the horrendous nightmares of reality that pounded his possessed limbs every day since the world he’d once known had cleaved apart.

Ever since the remainder that had been left of his family had been taken away, leaving him behind in this world with no second chances or goodbyes; no last words or quick confessions. He distantly remembered a sickening crunch hovering above him as the girl approached him.

She was beautiful as she stopped before him: her wavy dark brown hair had always seemed to take on an alluring shade of creamy azure. Her eyes were a soft hazel, and her milky skin, although fair and pale for the most part, seemed to glow softly in the sunlight that shone through the windows of the memory’s eaves. It cast golden mirages of brightness that seemed to burst alive across her lips as they moved accordingly to him. 

“Hey,” she spoke to him softly in the haze. “I was wondering if we could maybe talk for a minute?”

The old husk of the boy that he’d once been in the memory before him suddenly felt a bit nauseous at the prospect of having her see him like this. 

The terrifying creature that had viciously attempted to possess him (albeit, having succeeded for a while before he’d been able to fight it off,) had unwittingly caused him to create a major outburst in the class that they’d been sharing for their entire junior year in high school together. A class discussing - was it theatre or English literature? - philosophical metaphors that at the time had seemed to be quite pointless to him in lieu of his personal life. 

But now, when he found himself in these momentary breaks of memory that his subconsciousness managed to grab a hold of, he found himself beginning to reassess everything that he had ever known in his life before discovering that it had not been anything at all how he’d made it out to be. 

He’d suffered through a lot of pain and anger: mainly from his mother, and sometimes from the rest of his family. He had always felt that he was an utter disappointment to her, even early on from a very young age. 

Especially when he would be scrutinized over something as simple as greeting his mother when he came home from school, or accidentally breaking a vase in the hallway that was somehow expanded on in ways that weren’t true. Anything he did or did not do just simply would not seem to ever satisfy her enough, whether he would try to appease her or not. 

It had recently gotten to the point where he started acting like she’d treated him: a careless freak of nature selfish over things in the ways that should have mattered to him. 

Rightfully so, this memory of his had been one of those particular incidents of which he’d done so accordingly. But this one was among one of the few rare recollections that seemed to be clouded with the same darkness that suffocated him at this very moment, strangling him into place and keeping a tight hold onto his very being to where he was paralyzed. 

He was trapped and useless, a mere puppet waiting to be used for ulterior motives. This memory had been one of the final remaining signs before he’d fallen into the perfectly set trap silently luring him in.

He knew better than to not pay close attention to it as he relived it in the shadows of his being. And not only because of the familiar girl’s soothing presence, but because something in his gut screamed at him to take in every last detail to the mark. Every sense of every moment that passed him by, regardless if time had already slipped him away from its clutches in reality.

“Hey,” he responded to her carefully, a bit wary at the unusual nervousness he could feel radiating off of her. His nose was utterly broken as it still was now, with the same spotless white gauze that covered up the brutal wound in a frail attempt to heal it. 

In those few moments of silence, he’d silently wondered to himself as to where his parents were at that time. The school staff had notified them of what had occurred in the classroom with the specifics. He could barely remember succumbing to a momentary deluge of fear where he’d spoken his true thoughts and fears aloud to the mundane: 

_A demon just tried to fucking kill me! It possessed me just now! Some vengeful spirit of this is after me, and it’s out to destroy me and my family right now! Do you understand me? My family and I are in danger!_

The mesmerizing girl beheld him with an expression that he could barely decipher fully: it was mixed between a strange combination of pity and worry and a few faint touches of shyness and confusion. “I know that you’ve been going through a bunch of fucked up shit ever since the night of that party...”

She hesitated for a moment, seeming to immediately sense his unease at her sudden change in subject. She began to fidget a little with her hands, her eyes avoiding his momentarily as she shifted on her feet. He recalled feeling a bit relieved that he wasn’t the only one feeling so pent up in this conversation. It wasn’t her presence that was awkward, it was his own that made it so.

He’d also felt a little bit flattered that she was clearly just as nervous as he was at the entire prospect of her being so uncharacteristically open to him. 

She fumbled for several more moments of tension before decisively stuffing them both into the back pockets of her dark blue jeans. “I know that we’ve barely talked. And we hardly ever, like, hang out together or anything. I’ve always wanted to, even though I’ve always been busy with bullshit. But yeah, I’m really worried about you, Peter. I guess that I was just wondering if you wanted to talk to me about any of it. I may not know what it is exactly that’s been going on in your life right now, but I am here for you if you ever need someone to talk to about - well, anything really.”

Despite the haziness roiling within him in lieu of the recent and horrific events that the entirety of his class probably whispered about in the hallways of the school, Peter could only feel an incredible sense of gratitude for the girl that he’d been silently pining for from afar for so long now. They hadn’t really been talking as much as they had been on the night of his younger sister’s death.

The haunting memories replayed in the imprisoned Peter viewing this memory in his tainted soul through the present, and he could see those same images reflecting in his glassy, brown eyes as he looked up into the girl’s face. He remembered those long and agonizing nights of insomnia, where the grief and guilt had suffocated him from the inside out, leaving him raw and breathless and empty. He’d done everything that he could to cope with the facts that surrounded the events that had happened on that fateful night long ago. 

It only felt like it’d been mere weeks, days even at times, but Peter knew that his possessed body was no longer that of a teenage boy on the cusp of young adulthood. He somehow knew intuitively that he was most likely on the cusp of turning nineteen very soon, and that his newfound absence in the high school he’d attended - and his own dilapidated home - had forgotten that he’d existed.

Paimon’s cult following led by his grandmother and a strange woman named Joan who claimed to have been her most loyal and trusted acolyte had made sure of it. They’d cast spells and hexes on the city in which he’d once like loved to call home, despite the tense relationship with his mother and the strained relationship he shared with his sister. But Peter ached to have it all back - even if for just one fleeting moment, even if in realities that were not wholly real, just like the memories exactly like this one.

The ones buried but not forgotten, fueling what was barely left of his resolve to fight Paimon’s complete control over his body. 

Suddenly, before he could continue to watch the exchange between his past self and that of the beautiful girl, his eyes were then blinded by darkness so consuming that he thought he’d choke on its stark blackness, cold, empty and numb. He once thought that a pair of hands had come up from under his bed in a frenzied nightmare that felt too real to be a dream, but this was an entirely different thing from that horrid experience.

He felt like he couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move an inch in his body, couldn’t whisper a word or move an eye or even twitch a muscle. 

And that was always what Paimon wanted. He loved seeing his host at his weakest, most vulnerable state of existence. Craved the energies surrounding Peter’s vigil, chanting in an ancient language of darkness that he was pathetic and frail, and would never be anything more than a helpless sapping bastard of a mortal not worthy of anything at all.

One of the many eight Kings of Hell had taken everything from him - alongside his wretched, deceased grandmother. How he’d ever thought that his mother didn’t love him more than that evil bitch he would never fully comprehend. Suddenly, Paimon granted him access to his eyes - but only distantly, never loosening the tight reign on which he held his soul captive in its place, caving in on itself despite not being burned out. 

Something was occurring in the temple of which Paimon had entered those two years ago when he’d revealed his true nature in Peter’s screaming body. He had begged and pleaded and cried for the demon to release him, but the hellion was an empty void of nothing save for vengeance and purpose that eluded even his own mortal comprehension.

The treehouse, as it had been ever since that sacred night, had been transformed into a larger essence of a temple. Candles, bric-a-brac, skulls, tomes, and many more ancient objects radiating of dark powers not quite from this world surrounded the wooden structure in an organized semblance of such occult normalcy. It was hard to believe that once in the past two years, Charlie and his mother had slept peacefully upon these very planks now stained with their blood forever.

As a matter of fact, it was becoming extremely hard for Peter to truly remember things, as they had once been before all of this madness, had happened.

But that was what happened to a family when their matriarch made deals with the devil - by ruining your own tainted family by grooming them for a ritual worthy of Hell. A ritual that would bring down nothing but Hell on Earth, ending in flames dancing of violence and death and darkness that would swallow it whole.

Two of the lead cultists were bowing before his possessed body, and Paimon had been telepathically speaking to one of them about the arrival of visitors from a place in Sweden. Hårga, if Peter had heard the demon correctly.

 _Then I assume that all is going well with the Governess in her escorting of the Hårgan May Queens_? That voice, filled with such flame and ice that it was a wonder the world didn’t fall to his knees, grated against the essence of Peter’s soul, raking against it like sharpened claws scraping against a jagged stone. His fingers were tapping against his throne of decay and death, pallid movements that Peter could only watch from afar without controlling them himself.

He’d given up long ago when all of Hell had broken him loose.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” the greasy cultist was saying. Peter recognized him immediately with pure disgust. He’d seen him at the funeral, smiling at Charlie’s figure with a faint gleam in his eyes that had been just as troublesome on the night in which Peter had lost it all. The sight of his naked body just sneering at him in the darkness of a doorway in his house would haunt his memories forever. “They are to arrive soon. I sense them within the third mile as we speak of it.”

 _Good_ , the ancient King purred, his wrists flaring in indignation as a faint, golden flame seemed to sizzle from his host’s skin. _I’d truly despise the May Queens for it if my Governess didn’t indulge me so obediently. If my wife does not return in one piece, all Hell breaks loose._

 _Your Hell already broke loose, you sick fuck_ , Peter sneered at his captor. Ire dripped in his inner voice, like cold thoughts sucking warmth away. _Reap what you motherfucking sowed_.

Paimon gave no indication that he’d heard him, but he could have sworn that he’d heard a distant growl of displeasure echoing throughout the dark chasm of his mind.

"Of course, Your Majesty. It will be done _,"_ the cultist agreed.

_And make sure that the others see to it to find the human girl and bring her to a visit me immediately, he continued on to the cultist indifferently. She knows of too much of our plans. We cannot afford to have any other missteps for the ritual on our part._

Peter paused, hesitance and fear creeping in his essence as the King of Hell purred deeply into the deepest recesses of his soul in confirmation, his worst nightmare coming to fruition as he did so. _Indeed, loathsome boy_ , he crooned in a voice full of such wicked delight sure to rattle the world into rubble around them one say. _I will find that girl. And I will rip her to pieces before your very eyes_.

He was then cast into the pit of darkness that was his broken soul again, cast aside and ignored before he finally remembered her name in the echoing hollows of his prison.

 _Bridget_...


End file.
